Rajat Patidar reveals the turning point of his career 

image-l8vw3rvvRajat Patidar & Dinesh Karthik / PC: Twitter

Rajat Patidar, who recently got his maiden national call-up for the three-match ODI series against South Africa believes that the knock he played against Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator game of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League was a turning point for him.

For the unversed, the RCB batter played a match-winning knock of 112 runs from just 54 deliveries and remained unbeaten to help the team post a mammoth total of 207 runs on the board in their allotted 20 overs, which their bowlers defended successfully and won the match. 

Ahead of the first match of the ODI series against South Africa in Lucknow, Patidar opened up on the maiden call up and said the selection feels like a dream to him. Speaking to Cricket Addictor, here's what the 29-year had said: 

"That IPL knock was a turning point for me. All this feels like a dream to me." 

Patidar on sharing dressing room with Virat Kohli

Patidar further opened up on the impact of his cricket idols Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma on his career, stating how sharing the dressing room with the batting maverick has helped him develop as a player, both on field and off field. 

"Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are my idols. Playing with Virat Kohli and creating partnerships with him has been really special. Even off the field, if I go to him to talk about my batting, he is always helpful."

"Getting a chance to share the dressing room with your idols, which not everybody gets in their life, is really special. There are a lot of learnings that I have gotten from him, both on and off the field." 

Rajat Patidar's breakthrough IPL season

Patidar had a breakthrough IPL season with Royal Challengers Bangalore this year. Having replaced the injured Luvnith Sisodia in the RCB squad, the Madhya Pradesh went on to make a case for himself, amassing 333 runs in eight matches at an average of 55.50, including a century and two fifties.

The 29-year old backed it with exhilarating performance in the Ranji Trophy, where he whacked a belligerent century in the final for Madhya Pradesh and finished the season as the second highest run-scorer with 658 runs.

Patidar also grabbed the eyeballs on his India-A debut, where he mustered 319 runs in four innings at an startling average of 106.33. He scored two centuries against New Zealand A with 176 being his highest score. 

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